Liner Notes by PEK

Leap of Faith is the core duet of the Leap of Faith Orchestra (LOFO) comprised of PEK on clarinets, saxophones, clarinets & flutes, and Glynis Lomon on cello, aquasonic & voice.  The ensemble is based in Boston and dates back to the early 90s.  We utilize a huge arsenal of additional Evil Clown instruments to improvise long works featuring transformations across highly varied sonorities.   At times, the core unit has been a trio or even a quartet.  The longest running core unit was comprised of PEK, Glynis and drummer Yuri Zbitnov, who played for the last couple of years of the archival period and the first 5 years of the reboot starting in 2015.  The ensemble has always been highly modular, and our many recordings (well over 100) feature the core unit in dozens of configurations with a huge list of guests and occasionally as only the core unit with no guests.  Currently, the core unit is the duet of PEK and Lomon and we are regularly presenting LIVESTREAMs to YouTube from Evil Clown Headquarters with other guest performers.

Performing on Decoding the Evolution of Meaning are 3 horn players and 4 string players – nearly all of whom double the percussion and electronic instruments permanently set up at Evil Clown Headquarters.  There are many Leap of Faith lineups that combine horns, strings and percussion.  Originally, Jared Seabrook, an amazing relatively new Evil Clown drummer who has done 5 sets by Leap of Faith and Turbulence in the last maybe two years.  Unfortunately, Jared had car trouble and had to withdraw from the set at the last minute. 

Jared is an amazing drummer, and this set would have been terrific with him at the drum set as planned; however, here at Evil Clown we are very prepared to roll with this kind of sudden change.  The ensembles are highly modular and nearly always comprised of different people.  The selection of the players creates a section through the overall Evil Clown Resources and different sections yield vastly different results.  So, a last second change is something we handle easily.

Usually, when the ensemble size gets to 5 or 6 performers, we do have a drummer on the set.  So, Decoding the Evolution of Meaning is special since it is one of the largest Leap of Faith performances (at 7 players) that does not include a drummer.   Not having a drummer dramatically changes the energy level and makes everything more like chamber music.  More of the total duration of the work typically is quieter and with more space.  That being said, there is still plenty of percussion present in the piece since most of us double the Evil Clown instruments in the studio along with our primary axes.  The lack of action density in no way diminishes the intensity of the performance, only it’s volume.

Most of the crew here are hard core Evil Clown regulars with 20 or more sessions to their credit.  However, Tom Swafford weighs in on violin for his sixth session and Becca Pasley on bass shows up for her second set.  Glynis and I met Tom right before the pandemic at Bonnie Kane’s series in Western MA where Tom played a terrific solo set and Leap of Faith performed a trio set with PEK, Glynis and drummer Steve Niemitz.  At that time Tom was living in New York City, but was planning to move to Providence RI in the near future.  Eventually, after the conclusion of the pandemic he did move and started trekking up to Waltham occasionally for Leap of Faith Sets.

Becca was recommended by Bonnie Kane for the Turbulence Orchestra & Sub-Units performance a couple of weeks ago at John Loggia 118 Elliot St Gallery in Brattleboro VT.   She did a great job at that gig and appears here for the first time at an Evil Clown Headquarters Livestream performance.

I really like this set, and I bet you will too…

• PEK 5/4/2024